


People you get to know

by god



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, Irvin/Levi in the past only, M/M, Multi, current times AU, maybe references to drugs?, riren - Freeform, there is a videogame called attack on giant, they get dorky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-22 00:08:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/god/pseuds/god
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Rated M for following chapters)<br/>It was the game he should be thankful of for meeting Zoe in the first place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [piss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piss/gifts).



Hanji noticed the way Eren’s fingers were slightly trembling around his cup of hot chocolate. Eren wasn’t usually this awkward, it was just the situation he was being put in. Meeting new people itself was intimidating, but meeting new, older people that seemed to be cool people was something he couldn’t simply deal with. Zoe could see that he was feeling rather uncomfortable, it was pretty obvious with the way his glare was stuck in the corner of the table. So she reached for her bag and pulled out her portable playstation.

“Hey Eren, could you possibly pass me this level on AOG?”

Eren nodded and grabbed regardfully the psp with his hands, occupying himself with buttoning it under the table. It was the game he should be thankful of for meeting Zoe in the first place. Attack on Giants was a newly released game, pretty popular among people of Eren’s age and not only. The purpose of the game was to fight Giants and gain information about them as the story advances. Having a precarious financial situation, Eren could only get the chance to play the game when Jean would lend Mikasa his psp. Even though Jean wasn’t fond of Eren, it was obvious for everybody in their high school that he had a huge crush on Eren’s older sister. Mikasa herself wasn’t that excited about the game, but she always got a warm feeling inside her chest when she would notice how involved her step-brother was while playing it.

Eren Eren was waiting for the subway to reach his destination,patience wearing out, when he met Hanji for the first time. They were sitting next to each other on the bench of the crowded subway. He glanced over her and realized that she had her psp in her hands, her thumbs running crazily over the buttons, trying to beat the boss giant. Without meaning to, Eren kept his eyes on the screen, his breath getting caught in his throat as his fists clenched . His eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open and when the player’s HP bar had gone empty, he couldn’t restrain himself from letting out a muttered “Damn it!”. The girl, dressed into a fitting t-shirt tucked into her large high-waist pants and wearing brown sandals, raised her sight, her eyes flashing over her glasses. 

She introduced herself as Hanji Zoe, earning Eren’s full name and then they talked about the game, Eren admitting to her that he didn’t have the luxury of playing it whenever he would have liked. Eren had to admit that even though he knew many people pleased by the AOG video game, he never encountered someone as excited about it as Zoe was. She had to get off of the subway before him, but they managed to exchange email addresses and so they started talking and became acquainted and eventually friends. They met several times to play the game in team mode, and then she invited him to a café bar, and so it has come to this.

Aside from him and Hanji,there were 2 more people sitting at the table.A girl,but she wasn't the one that caught his attention,and a somewhat dubious looking man. He wasn’t looking that dubious, after all, but there was something in his glare that made you want to look away and fear for your safety. Eren would have started to stare at him, since he managed to get a quick glance of his soft and sharp features and it was something enjoyable to watch . That until he eyed Eren with a death-sharp look, and so Eren was now grateful for having his attention focused on the game. 

After finishing the current topic they were at, something about the internment of the ginger-haired girl’s boyfriend. The seriousness of the issue didn’t allow Hanji to make the proper introductions, but once it was over she smacked Eren’s shoulder lightly and added:

“Oy, this is Eren.”

And then she pointed at the girl with light ginger hair, saying “This is Petra.”, following with pointing at the intimidating dude and making a note : “And that grumpy shorty over there is my best friend, Levi!”

Eren was a little surprised when the word ‘shorty’ left her mouth, not remarking Levi’s low height, thanks to the fact that they were all sitting on chairs.

Levi left a exasperated sigh and spoke in a clear yet bored manner:

“Oy, brat.”

Petra greeted him in a friendlier manner, and then they started conversing. He told them about himself, and about how he was in 11th grade and had an older step-sister called Mikasa that was applying for a police university and an amazingly smart best friend called Armin of his age. He found out that the guy at the table was studying at the faculty of foreign languages, specializing in French and german and that he was 19, while Petra was into the same college as Mikasa. Hanji chuckled to herself when he mentioned the specialization in the Germanic language. Eren already knew about Hanji’s age and specialization, she was preparing to become a surgeon of some sort and she was around 21 or 22.

That was the first time he met Levi, but not the last, on the strength of his forming friendship with Hanji and her already existing bounding with Levi. Hanji would invite him out with different people, but her best friend would be always present, even though he always had that look on his face as if he was forced to come along. 

Usually, Eren would leave earlier than most of them, seeing how he was the youngest of the group, despite the fact that Mikasa would be the only one awaiting for him home. Sometimes he would linger some more and then walk home with Hanji or maybe another person of the group that headed in the same direction. But there were once only the three of them, he, Hanji and Levi left, and Hanji was going to spend the night over Levi’s place, thing that surprised Eren, since Levi didn’t exactly appear as a person who’d organize sleepovers and this sort of things in general. 

“Yo, Levi, do you think Eren could come to your place too?” Hanji asked, tilting her head in Levi’s direction. Levi only managed to thin his lips preparing to reply, because he was interrupted by Eren.

“Actually, my sister would get pretty mad at me if I didn’t spend the night home, especially without telling her, so…”

“He’s ok.” Levi addressed Hanji. He is still a idiot though, but his presence isn’t insufferable like other people’s.”

Eren wasn’t sure if he was supposed to feel flattered or insulted, but even so, he decided not to say anything in addition, and glanced over to notice a smile plastered on Hanji’s face thanks to Levi’s acceptance of her new friend.  
She looked over at Eren and smiled, suggesting:  
“You could just come over for a few hours or something, and then go home or something.”  
Eren looked down, considering her proposal. Mikasa wouldn’t get mad at him for being later than usual with a few hours, and he was feeling, honored?... Honored to be welcome at such a cool guy’s house. And he would have been lying if he said that he didn’t find the guy quite awesome, despite his cold and indifferent attitude.  
“Yeah, I guess that would work.”  
Eren looked over at Levi, expecting to find him frowning, annoyed at the fact that a brat like him was coming along, but he didn’t manage to read his expression at all. For sure, he wasn’t looking glad or anything, but then again, Eren couldn’t recall ever seeing him glad, or smiling or anything of the sort. Also, Eren couldn’t find any signs of displeasure too. He kept studying Levi’s face as he was caught in listening to whatever Hanji was talking about. But then Levi looked back and Eren expected him to furrow his eyebrows and tell him something like “The fuck are you looking at, brat?”, just the way Levi actually did a few times, but his expression remained calm and indifferent.  
After conversing some more and finishing their drinks, and Levi dragging a last puff of his cigarette they got up and headed out of the bar they were sitting in. Eren expected the group to be heading to the subway station, hoping that it would still be circulating, but he saw Levi and Hanji heading towards the parking lot so he followed suit. Levi got out the keys to his cars, and opened a vintage-looking, well maintained car, possibly recently washed, of a dark green color.  
Eren went on the back seat, as Levi got into the driver seat and Hanji in his right. Levi got his keys in contact and pressed play on his board radio, letting sex pistols play in the background, loud enough to enjoy the music, yet not loud enough for people at a fair distance from the car to be bothered by it. Eren looked around, and was impressed by how clean the car looked. He didn’t have a car yet, considering his age and not haing a driving licence, but he was sure that he wouldn’t ever be able to maintain his car like this and he was pretty sure that not any average human being wouldn’t be able to ,either.  
The ride was nice, Eren’s gaze fixed over the dark surroundings and the dim light of street lanterns, as Levi and Hanji were discussing something about music. Eren was always impartial about music, he was ok with any kind of music, making it easy for him to enjoy himself at any kind of party. Hanji usually enjoyed calm music, but sometimes, when in the mood, she would scream the lyrics along with any agitated kind of music, just like she was now, while Levi was talking to her. Levi’s taste in music was similar to her. He was affirming that he was listening to anything that could be classified as good music, and Eren wished that he could say the same, but he wasn’t even the littlest picky about what he was listening to.  
Hanji had a car too, yet she was still using public transport. It was pretty weird, but then again, there were many strange, yet not disturbing things about Zoe. Eventually they ended up at Levi’s house, and it started to rain just as they got out of the care. None of them hurried to Levi’s apartment, Eren not knowing in which direction he should head and Levi and Hanji not finding the raindrops bothering. When they arrived at Levi’s door, Eren noticed the other two removing their shoes at the entrance.  
“He’s gonna throw a tantrum if you get his floor dirty by getting in with your shoes on.” Hanji informed him and then laughed.  
Eren followed the protocol of removing his shoes and then followed Hanji and Levi inside. The apartment opened into a halfway with 4 doors on the side.  
Levi raised his hand and pointed at each of them using either his index finger either his thumb:  
“Bathroom. Kitchen. My room. Living room.”  
Hanji headed directly to Levi’s room, much to Eren’s surprise who was expecting Levi to keep them in the living room. Eren remained for a little in the hallway, waiting for Levi to get going to his room so that he could follow him, but Levi was simply staying there. Eren looked at Levi and Levi looked at Eren. Once again, Levi’s face wasn’t giving Eren any clue of what could be going inside his head, but he was assuming that the other was inspecting him. And Eren had to admit that he was also inspecting Levi, he way his jaw met his neck, the way his pale skin was just slightly wet from the rain, the way the end of his nose was staying just a little upwards. Wasn’t that called checking someone out?  
Levi was the first one to break visual contact, blinking and then looking away, before heading to his room. Eren followed.  
His room was simple but neat. He had a medium sized bed, a desk with an office chair and three beanie chairs . There were also some closets and shelves with books and a few decorative things. Hanji was already laying with her belly on the floor, turning Levi’s laptop on.  
Eren would have expected someone like Levi, who got infuriated whenever anybody would get dirt over his things and preferred not to share anything about him, to not allow people touch any of his personal things, but once again he was wrong, and he realized that most of the assumptions he was making about the other male where negative ones. He was actually making up nice assumptions too, like assuming that he shaves or that he uses expensive body lotions to keep his skin perfectly clean and things like that, but those assumptions were making Eren feel weird so he choose to spend more time on the others.  
Hanji brought into discussion a topic about some rumors about a political figure. Eren didn’t know much about politics, and Levi wasn’t a big fan of them either, but in a mysterious way, no matter what Levi and Hanji would start talking about, they would never run out of replies to give one another.  
They moved around and Levi ended up staying on the laptop, while Hanji and Eren were taking turns at playing Attack on Giant on Hanji’s psp.  
“Oy, Brat.”  
Eren looked up, knowing that Levi was most probably addressing him, already used to the appellative.  
“Hm?”  
“While we’re at it, give me your e-mail address.”  
“Oh.”  
Eren got up from the floor and moved next to the bed, where Levi was staying over the laptop.  
“I’m gonna type it in” Eren said, and extended his arms to reach uncomfortably the keyboard, pulling up a little struggle in typing it correctly without bothering Levi. After he finished, Levi, once again to his surprise, let out a chuckle.  
“What?” Eren asked, a little concerned, thinking that Levi would make fun of his e-mail address or something like that.  
“The way you were trying so hard to type it, man. You’re a funny one, kid.”  
Eren didn’t really know how the react to that, so he just forced a chuckle himself while he rubbed the back of his neck.  
The three of them kept showing each other things over the internet and occasionally Hanji started to talk about old friends of hers and Levi’s and what they could be doing now, and Eren could have affirmed without lying that he was enjoying himself, but eventually he had to go home, not wishing to get Mikasa mad at him. He checked the clock that read 1am and noted:  
“Um, I should be heading home.”  
Hanji raised her head from her psp and looked up at Eren.  
“How will you get home?”  
“Oh, yeah.” Eren didn’t even question himself about it. “The subway stopped circulating, but I can still walk.”  
“You’d have to walk for like 3 hours.” Hanji added.  
Eren gulped.  
“I could give you a ride home.” Levi interjected as he got up from the soft mattress.  
“You coming along?” he asked, looking over Hanji who now returned to her game.  
“Nah,” she replied, “I’m just gonna wait for you to get back”.  
“’Kay.”  
And with that he headed to the door of the apartment.  
Eren waved at Hanji and let out a happy “See ya” before following Levi.  
They got out of the apartment, made their way to the car, and this time Eren didn’t find anything wrong about sitting in the passenger’s seat. Levi didn’t either. Levi asked him a few questions about highschool and family like:  
“That sister of yours, doesn’t she have a car?”  
“Mikasa? Oh, well, she doesn’t have her own car, but she’s got her driving license and sometimes our friend’s gradpa allows her to use it to take me and Armin to places.”  
Eren learned that Levi could actually sustain an interesting conversation if he was willing to, he just chose not to most of the time. During the ride he would also make small introspective affirmations inspired by the places he’s spot on the road or by the persons passing by.  
Eren guided him how to get him home and before getting off the car, he wondered if he should ask for his mobile number, but rationed that getting his number could a be conversation-starter once he had Levi’s e-mail address.  
“That’s where I live,” Eren noted pointing with his finger at a balcony in the nearest building and then he unbuckled his belt and got off the car.  
“See ya,” he said before closing the door, waving awkwardly at the other male and expected to receive a tsk or maybe an eyeroll from Levi, praying to god that Levi wouldn’t consider this trip a burden of any sorts.  
He was taken aback when, still as expressionless as ever, Levi added:  
“Sure, see ya.” Before driving off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will have more chapters i am just getting started just you fucking watch me ruin this  
> i didn't beta read an idk how to format 0ops  
> please let me know what you think and don't be afraid of pointing out any mistakes


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> featuring yuri hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know how to feel about this

Eren took his time to climb the stairs to his apartment. A few minutes wouldn’t make any difference in confronting Mikasa, and on side note, most of his neighbors were old men and grannies, that wouldn’t have really appreciated the noise of jumping over two sets of stairs at once somewhere around 2 in the morning. The block of flats he and Mikasa lived in was an old one. The painting on most of the walls was scraped and anybody could see the many attempts of painting it over, even in the darkness of the night, where the only light guiding Eren to his door was the blue sidelight of the moon. All the doors were made of wood, all of them. Fragile, easily breakable wooden doors. Their block would have been an easy target for thieves, but nobody would have actually been interested in robbing a family that had nothing to offer. Eren and his step-sister were also categorized as a family not worth robbing. Even so, they had something to treasure and to protect, and that was their lives. That’s why Mikasa had given the test for weapon possessions. Without any doubt, she passed it. And it wasn’t just because she was attending a police university. She truly was in all debts capable of holding a gun. The black-haired girl was on top of her class too. Eren had an attempt at getting his weapon possession license too, but unfortunately, he didn’t pass the psychological examination. He might’ve been able to handle a gun, but the officers said that he was way to unstable to think straight in the moment he would have had it aimed at somebody. It wasn’t a formal examination in all senses though, they gave him a chance at it, even though he was underage, just because of Mikasa’s insistences.  
Eren was tired, his eyes were itchy and he could almost feel the small veins holding his eyeballs twitch. His hands were numb. When he raised his hand to get his keys out of his jacket he felt like his fingers were traversing through cotton. He sighed and after getting his keys out, he raides his hand to his eye level before lowering it and inserting the key in the door lock. His fingers were rigid. He opened the door slowly and carefully, then made his way inside to find Mikasa writing down some notes from university on the kitchen counter, accompanied by a cup of coffee, already half drank. Mikasa raised her eyes to meet Eren’s. Eren didn’t even have to give an explanation, Mikasa would have noticed if anything worth prying into would have happened to Eren just by the look of his eyes. It wasn’t just that Mikasa knew her brother better than Eren himself, but also the fact that Eren was an extremely expressive person. His eyes were specifically filled with any emotion Eren was experiencing. So, seeing that Eren had nothing to hide, Mikasa decided that she had nothing to investigate. She nodded in a sign of permission, and Eren removed his shoes and then walked into the dormitory. The apartment they were living in only had two rooms: the dormitory and the living room, that was connected to the kitchen. They would take turns at who was sleeping on the couch and who would rest on the bed, without any advantage present by having any of those, seeing that both options were just as uncomfortable.  
Eren plopped himself onto the bed, not bothering to remove anything but his jacket and fell asleep almost instantly. He was pretty content with his life at this moment. He got over the death of his mom and the fact that his father was never home, except for the rare times when he’d come over with some money and eventually wrong sized clothes. They weren’t sure where Mr. Yaeger got his money, since their most justified assumption was that he was a member of a sect or something like that. Neither of them actually had the time nor the motivation to investigate the matter. There were plenty of other possibilities, but Eren and Mikasa decided that it would be better to just mind their own lives. The bed Eren was now drooling on wasn’t big, it could hardly fit two thin persons. It wasn’t smooth either. But it was everything he needed to fall asleep on.  
In the morning Eren was planning to meet Armin at the mall, since the city they were living in didn’t really have any remarkable places they could visit, so usually the mall was a fair option. They were supposed to meet at the entrance of the mall around two in the afternoon, so after eating enough milk with cereal to make it up for both breakfast and lunch, Eren got on his way around 1pm.  
Armin would usually meet Eren at his house and they would head towards the mall together, but today he had to go to a school contest in the morning. But now they had to meet directly at the mall, which was kind of shitty for Armin, seeing how it was 1 am and he was already at the entrance of the mall. He wouldn’t even question the well-known fact that Eren would be late, as he usually was, so now he had over one hour to waste. He called Eren and told him to hurry up, but there was nothing his friend could do about the time the subway would take to get him where he wanted. Armin sighed and entered the mall, thinking that he could kill some time by looking around or maybe, if he had the luck, bumping into someone he knew. He could always set to sitting down on a bench or maybe buy a drink, but he didn’t really want to waste money just in order to keep himself busy.  
As he was aimlessly advancing in the building he spotted a familiar blonde girl heading to the pet shop. He started to walk towards her, the distance between being too big for him to call for her. He watched Christa as she accidentally stepped on a dude walking in front of her. Armin stopped for a moment, and then increased his speed as he noticed the male turning around, together with his two other friends.  
“Uh! I’m sorry!”  
“Watch where you’re walking, idiot.”  
When the man realized that the person he was addressing was shorter that he expected her to be, he bowed his head to give the girl a dirty look.  
“That’s why women should like, walk at a 10 meters distance behind men.” One of the guys added and laughed with a snort.  
“Well, you got my foot out of my shoe, babe.” The guy stated with a smug flinch of the corner of his lips. “Maybe you’d like to see me with less apparel?”  
He lowered himself even more, as his friends started to laugh looking at each other.  
Armin couldn’t see Christa’s expression, but even so, he had to hurry and make sure the situation wouldn’t get worse. He tried to look as if he didn’t spot them before and that he was ready to pass them, but then stopped.  
“Oy! Christa!”  
Christa turned her head, and the three guys followed suit.  
“Armin!” She exclaimed, smiling, and then approached him. The two of them started to walk, trying to ignore and get away from those douche bags. It usually worked, because really now, what kind of asshole did you have to be to keep harassing someone in front of their friend, after they have apologized without even replying to rude remarks? Well, usually. Today was not the case.  
Armin regretted wearing his sweater when he was grabbed by the back of it. He tsked and stopped walking, not really in the mood to be picked on.  
“With a boyfriend like that, there’s no wonder that she doesn’t know her place!” The guy said. The others giggled. This whole situation was terrible. They were in a public place, with occasional passer by-ers, why wasn’t anybody interfering before the situation would get worse?  
“You mean he’s not a girl?”  
The three started to laugh once again.  
Neither Armin or Christa didn’t have a reply to give. It would have been just a waste of time. It was useless even trying to talk nicely with those guys.  
Christa tuned around, and watched Armin, hoping that the guy would let go of him as soon as possible so that they could just get over this. It was nerve-driving, how a simple mistake could result into such an annoying situation. Then Christa’s eyes widened as she spotted something. Or rather, someone.  
Ymir calmly approached the group, leaving two cartoon coffee cups on a nearby bench. Without a word she got between the guys, placing her hand on Christa’s shoulder and prompting her to walk away with her.  
“Hey, we were having a conversation here, bitch.”  
Ymir looked over her shoulder at the dude who had just spoken, but just ignored him. That until he grabbed Christa by her wrist, no that hard, but enough to keep her in place.  
“Haha, that pussy’s got more guts than you, shorty.” The one holding Armin said to him. “The two of you shorties have to get rescued by some weirdly tall chick. Is it even okay for girl to be as tall as a man?”  
Ymir clicked her tongue. It was a waste of time dealing with those guys, but so was trying to get away from them without any conflicting results. She gently pushed Christa aside, before punching the one holding Armin in the face and kicking the one who grabbed Christa in his neck with her elbow. Then she kicked the last one in the stomach with her knee. That should have been enough for the three of them to get away until those assholes would be in the mood to pick on people again.  
“You fucking lesbian slut!” The last one spat, holding his belly with both of his hands, breathing heavily with his eyes clothes.  
All the people that ignored them until now, were now staring at them, giving Ymir judging looks.  
With a “Hmph” Ymir departed, grabbing her coffee and waiting for Armin and Christa to follow her. Those guys didn’t follow them, not out of fear, but rather ashamed of being put in the situation of fighting a girl and the chances of them losing being higher.  
After they got away and made it to a table on the terrace, Armin looked over at Ymir and mumbled a “Thank you.”, even though he knew that the tanned girl didn’t do anything out of sympathy for him. She was simply not in the mood to argue with Christa for not doing something about Armin’s situation too. Armin didn’t want to stick around them for too long, especially with the looks Ymir was throwing at him, so as soon as Eren called him to announce him that he got to the mall, they ran to the gaming section.  
The gaming section was actually the only thing that made them come to a mall. They would just spend most of their money on geeky games and if they were lucky they would grab some junk food later. Or maybe an icecream or anything at all, since it didn’t really matter what they ate as long as it was in the pleasant company of each other.  
They played some shooting games, and even some DDR, getting actually pretty much worn out. They weren’t hungry, so they decided to go over at Eren’s place and maybe watch a movie together, since it was way cheaper than it would ever be at the cinema. They left the shopping centre and went to the subway station.  
“Fuck.” Armin whispered and looked in the opposite direction when he spotted the three guys he encountered just a few hours before, that day. They were really caught up in their discussion, so Armin’s hopes of them not noticing him were pretty high. That until Eren opened his mouth.  
“Armin? What’s wrong?”  
Eren didn’t really try to keep his voice down, so even at the fair distance between him and those guys they managed to hear him.  
“Armin? Wasn’t that-“  
“Fuck fuck fuck!” Armin breathed in a whisper.  
Eren turned around to see those guys approaching them, with some pretty annoyed expressions. Since he wasn’t aware of the situation going on, he simply waited for them to get closer.  
“Guess that inhuman girl friend of yours isn’t around to save your sorry ass this time, huh, blondie?” The one who started it all in the beginning spoke, crackling his fingers. This time he didn’t hesitate and punched Armin in the face, and then kicked him in the stomach.  
Eren’s eyes filled with anger.  
“What the fuck?!” he yelled, looking at one beating Armin, and then at the other two who remained unmoved, watching.  
Eren took a deep breath and then tried to kick the one attacking Armin, without collaterally injuring Armin. He kicked him with his foot on the side, throwing him 2 meters away from Armin. Then the other two joined the fight. And the result was expected. They just got beaten up really bad. During the fight the guys explained Eren what a daring friend he had, having the nerve to get saved by a girl and let them humiliated there. It was annoying because in the end Armin and Eren were left injured next to a wall, the other three leaving with the subway, still with the impression that what they did wasn’t wrong withal they actually deserved to get beaten up.  
Eren didn’t really mind standing for his friend. The wounds would heal, the bruises would fade, but their friendship would remain unbreakable. And at least with Eren by his side, Armin didn’t get as injured as he would if he were to resist those guys by himself. With a forced smile, Eren watched absently the almost empty subway station. They were probably looking like homeless people. Eren looked over to Armin, who was wearing a serious expression.  
“Eren.”  
Eren painfully gasped.  
“No.” He said, rubbing his side and wondering if anything there was broken. He could already see the extremities of Armin’s face turning purple, his nose already a bloody yellow mess. He knew what Armin wanted to ask him to do, and he knew that doing what Armin requested him to, would just make him feel even more miserable.  
“But we have to.”  
“No.” Eren repeated.  
Armin hesitated, feeling a little guilty, knowing that but for him, Eren wouldn’t have gained a new collection of scratches and swellings.  
“Eren… Stop being a little bitch and call Mikasa already.” Armin said, averting his gaze into Eren’s.  
“Tsk…” Eren took a deep breath. He had no other choice. He knew from experience that riding the subway while injured was terrible, not because people would give him pitiful looks, but because most of them would yell at them for showing like that in a public conveyance. And Eren was really, really, not in the mood for any more conflicts.  
“Fine.” He groaned.  
They were lucky that they didn’t get robbed. They didn’t really have money on them, but losing your phone and possibly your identity card was terrible, so at least they had one reason to be happy. It was probably the fact that they were showing that they weren’t really spoiled kids, so that the attackers didn’t catch any interest in stealing stuff from them. Both of them just hoped they wouldn’t ever run into those guys again, aware of the fact that they couldn’t ever get away from people like that, since there always were and there always will be people looking for trouble.  
Eren lazily got his phone out and dialed Mikasa. The tone in vis voice gave him away. His voice was low, tired, and empty.  
“Can you come pick us, Mikasa?”  
Eren could hear Mikasa letting out a big concerned sigh on the other side of the phone.  
“I’m on my way.”  
On the ride home Mikasa didn’t actually scowl them, she just gritted her teeth loudly while she listened to what happened. She wished that she could have been there to protect Eren, but she also knew that Eren should learn to defend himself, since no matter how much she wished for it, she couldn’t be always and forever by his side.  
Once they’ve got home, they just sprawled themselves on the floor. Mikasa took into consideration attempting to treat their wounds, but she had some paper work to do, so she just left them be.  
After a few hours of agonizing pain and short-term naps, Eren managed to get a grip of himself. He got up, looking over at Armin who was now asleep and noticing that Mikasa probably left for work. He made his way to the kitchen and made some tea for him and Armin, then returned in the living room, turning up his pathetic excuse for a laptop.  
It was already 10 pm when he finished checking on everything he needed. He was trying to decide whether he should was a movie or go to sleep, when a friend request popped up. It was Levi. Eren groaned in jealousy. It was agonizing just imagining how Levi couldn’t possibly get in such trouble, how his attitude wouldn’t allow any body to mess with him. Was it jealousy? Probably. Eren would often get jealous of others, whether it was for their belongings or social condition, whether it was on anything else, such as incredible good-luck and stuff like that. Eren started to think about how much he had to endure during all of his life, and got angry, not because he had gone through all this, but because others had the privilege of a better sorrow from his point of view. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, telling himself that there was no use in getting angry over some things that he should have gotten oven since long time ago, like his mother’s decease.  
Out of luck, his line of thinking was perturbed by Levi messaging him and asking him to come over.  
Eren was a little surprised and asked Levi is Hanji was there.  
It appeared that she wasn’t.  
Levi was probably lonely or something.  
Eren smiled at the thought. Like somebody everybody admires and wants around could ever be lonely. He chuckled to himself, recalling the times when he’d see even older men trying to imitate Levi’s behavior. But then he remembered his state. He got up and crawled to the bathroom, to check out himself in the mirror. He had a big wound right on his left eyebrow, destroying any possible symmetry present on his face, a swollen cheek and a scrapped chin. And that was just the face. He didn’t even want to find out how many shades of purple were plastered over his back and belly. Not to mention his arms and legs. He returned in front of the laptop.  
He gave it a thought. Maybe he should rest. He took a sip of his tea. Maybe he should just throw away this once-in-a-lifetime possibility. He took another sip. Was he okay with Levi seeing him like this? He could imagine the older boy making fun of him for managing to get beaten up despite doing nothing, but he could also imagine himself getting distracted from the bitterness by socializing.  
‘idk man, I’m not looking rlly presentable’ Eren typed. He couldn’t bring himself to care about the way he was writing, it was impressive that he managed to type something illegible at all.  
Levi asked if he was okay, without requesting details. Eren wrote a few things back, letting the other know that he wouldn’t really want to be seeing around the streets. Levi told him that he knew that sentiment and offered to come pick him up. Eren looked over his shoulder at Armin and then back to the screen. He gave in to Levi’s insistencies, which were actually insistencies, since he only sent Eren like two lines, none of them asking him nicely to come over or begging him to listen to Rivaille. They were simple questions. ( ‘Do you wanna come over?’ , ‘Want me to pick you up?’) Eren rubbed at his bruised temple and hoped that spending some time with Levi would make him feel better, since he was now both in a terrible physical state and a terrible emotional state.  
He gave Levi his phone number, so that he’d let him know when to get out of the house. Eren changed his shirt, not finding the motivation to replace his jeans and taking advantage of the coolness of the night, grabbed a fez and a windbreaker. He got down when Levi called him, locking the door and making sure there was also a set of keys inside the house so that Armin could leave if he wanted to. He left a messy written note that would inform Armin and Mikasa that he is at Levi’s.  
After just a few minutes of waiting, Levi pulled over and Eren got inside his car. He looked into the side mirror and thanked the darkness of the night for not making his injuries that evident.  
“Oh, now I see why you wouldn’t want to be seen around…” Levi said after taking a quick glance at Eren.  
Eren gasped. How could Levi notice that Eren was hurt just from a simple glance that didn’t last for more than two seconds? His question was answered when the man next to him continued, as he was already driving off.  
“I wouldn’t want to be seen wearing such a terrible wind jacket either.”  
Levi didn’t really have the expression of someone who was joking, but Eren laughed anyway. He was already starting to feel better.  
[rihanna – shut up n drive playing in the background]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel shitty but some things had to happen and it had to seems real  
> levi driving off is the end of every chapter or so it seems  
> also i get into dumb unnecessary details and miss important stuff srry


End file.
